The belief that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.

Murray Bookchin

Introduction

Communalism is the all encompassing term given to a comprehensive theory and practice that seeks to
reconstruct society along ecological lines. It is based in the essential premise that
all
environmental problems are rooted in social problems.
Along with global climate change, problems
such as widespread pollution, deforestation, and species extinction are all anthropogenic in their
source. Assessing these issues as a whole, we can see that our society is simplifying the
environment on a global scale. In fact, it is undoing the achievements of evolution by creating a
more simplified, inorganic world.
1

Communalism holds an objective set of social ethics that reflect the most developmental trends in
evolution, including greater choice, dynamic stability, and diversity. Supported by these ecological
trends, Communalism provides a foundation to act against injustice, domination, and hierarchy, which
are neither “natural” nor inevitable features of society.

These ideas also works within a historical framework that recognizes that society has not always
maintained the irrational form that we live in today. Communalism asserts that an ideal of freedom
has expanded throughout history in opposition to the development of hierarchy and domination. To
build upon these emancipatory efforts, a reconstructive vision is provided of an ecologically
harmonious society that is free from all forms of hierarchy.

This pamphlet is primarily focused on discussing this reconstructive vision, as well as exploring
practical steps for engaging in an educational and political process that can bridge where we are
today with the society we hope to achieve. Readers interested in learning more about Communalism's
philosophical and anthropological underpinnings should turn to the
Resources
section.

Ecological Ethics

Communalism holds a set of social ethics that reflect the developmental trends in evolution. An
objective ethics, meaning an ethics rooted outside the ambiguities of our imagination and
perceptible to all, is important because it provides us with a set of principles from which to
counter injustices and to guide our efforts for a truly free society void of any form of domination.

To begin, let us first define what is meant by “nature”. Nature is the history of its own
development over millions of years. This cumulative development incorporates its past and
continuously reaches into a broader, yet unified, diversification of species. Humans, no less than
any other species, are a part of nature. The emergence of humanity introduced a new realm in to
nature, a social nature. This species' transcendence of instinctual behavior, and its ability for
reflective thought and action was a significant expansion in comparison to the evolution of mind
elsewhere in nature. Along with this freedom comes the ability to contribute in a beneficial manner
toward both non-human and social nature, or to go against natural processes, as is found within
hierarchical relationships.
2

Many people believe that hierarchy exists in non-human nature, but this belief is inaccurate.
Hierarchy is an institutionalized system of command and obedience. An institution is a set of social
relationships that are neither determined by instinct nor idiosyncratic, and which can be liberating
or dehumanizing. They are organized, fairly stable, alterable, and continuous over generations.
Hierarchy was created by humans and therefore does not exist outside of society. Thus, what we
consider to be a “queen” bee is not a monarch at all, but an animal acting purely upon biological
instinct. What we call “the king of the jungle,” a lion, is no higher in the ecosystem than the tiny
ant that moves along the ground floor. Humans have projected the concept of hierarchy onto nature
because it is a system that defines and controls the order of their own relationships.
3

What is needed is for us to determine a set of social ethics that reflect what is actually present
in non-human nature. Diversity is an essential value because it creates the environmental context
for choice among organisms. The ability for animals to choose expands as species become more
developed neurologically and physiologically. Likewise, choice becomes more perceptible as the
interactions between different species in an ecosystem increase in number and complexity. Regardless
how rudimentary the decisions made by an animal are, the capacity for self-directiveness marks a
nascent form of freedom within non-human nature itself. Together with the evolution of mind and
freedom evolves subjectivity, individuality, creativity, and reason. In addition, contemporary
evolutionary biologists have supported Peter Kropotkin's argument that mutualism is as essential, if
not greater, a component of evolution than what is commonly referred to as competition. Thus, what
is gained from this assessment is a view of evolution that is participatory and cooperative rather
than a Victorian era outlook focused on a competitive “struggle for existence”.
4

Based on these arguments, an ecological society would be non-hierarchical, increase diversity,
expand the possibilities of freedom, foster the participation of each individual, and provide the
opportunity for each individual to develop their own subjectivity and rational capacity. Such a
society must provide people with the technological base to achieve these goals while interacting
with non-human nature in a manner that increases natural complexity. Additionally, the built
environment must be physically organized in such a way that a harmonious balance with non-human
nature is achieved. And finally, there must be a political system that empowers each person to
participate fully in the activities of social life.
5

Hierarchy

As stated, hierarchy is made up of institutionalized social relationships. Hierarchical
relationships also entail a pyramidal mentality in which differences are ranked antagonistically. In
the earliest human societies, any biological differences among people, as in age or gender, were
organized such to promote the unity and survival of the group. Over time, through a slow and
unsteady process, human relations were changed and institutionalized to the harsh forms of hierarchy
that we know of today, such as sexism, racism, homophobia, ablism, and so on.
6

Hierarchy first emerged through fairly benign forms of gerontocracy, in which elders of a community
exercised decision making over younger members. The relationships between men and women were
differentiated, yet complementary, which maintained the harmony of the overall group. This balance
in roles began to shift when the male civic realm expanded and encroached on women’s domestic
sphere, a social context known as patricentricity. As time passed, men's standing was enhanced by
other factors such as population increase which led to an expansion of inter-tribal encounters and
the spread of warfare. The ordering of society into classes followed the formation of kingships and
monarchies. The ideology of racism grew and gained supporters as European people spread the
fictitious belief in biological races and argued that people have essential characteristics
dependent on their racial group. This belief led to a stratified ordering of white people and people
of color, in which whites are placed superior to non-whites and receive benefits at their expense.
7

This brief history provides a context through which we can understand where we are in contemporary
society. The destructive effects of hierarchy are all too transparent in cases of war, genocide, and
slavery. Yet, hierarchy is so commonplace that it infiltrates our lives in the subtlest of ways,
disrupting our relationships to one another and to non-human nature. An individual’s experience of
hierarchical society can be shaped by a confluence of oppressions and privileges. To be sure,
certain groups of people exercise a greater deal of privilege than others. Hierarchy is reinforced
by privileged groups of people with the power to control the life of others.

Further, a hierarchical mentality has influenced the ways that people think about our environmental
problems. The rise of hierarchy and domination provided a basis for the idea that the environment is
something distinct from the human world and can be dominated by people. Fueling this idea to
dominate nature is a false perception of the natural world as a static object, something tameable
and conquerable by humans. Many popular ideologies of our time, from liberalism to Marxism, have
argued for the domination of the environment in order to make freedom real. However, unless we
recognize the social origins of environmental domination, and change these hierarchical and class
structures, we will see the rise of our problems, and the impossibility of freedom.
8

It is important to emphasize that hierarchy is antithetical to nature's tendency toward mutualism
and diversity. Hierarchy has not always existed, nor did it spring forth abruptly. There were
several points throughout history when societies could have gone in the direction of cooperation;
where people fought and died in trying to make freedom real. Hierarchy developed unsteadily over the
course of thousands of years and has reached its apogee with the nation-State, modern capitalism,
and large-scale destruction of the environment.

Capitalism

Capitalism is a hierarchical economic system that necessitates continuous expansion, exploitation,
and the concentrated ownership of wealth. The driving force of capitalism is the competitive market.
The market economy's essential purpose is to sell commodities for profit. Profit has to be realized,
regardless of the broader effects the commodity has on the environment or society at large, or the
capitalist will go bankrupt. In order to gain a competitive advantage over other businesses, the
capitalist is compelled to eliminate all social constraints on the exploitation of labor, and to
reinvest a large portion of accumulated profits into technologies that will increase productive
capacity, thereby lowering the cost of production through its economy of scale. A slow process of
cannibalization occurs in which businesses must fail thereby causing wealth to be concentrated into
the fewer hands of those who succeed.

From a broader perspective, if the economy as a whole produces more goods than can be sold in the
market, the system enters into a crisis because profitable outlets cannot be found. In turn
investment money dries up, workers are laid off, and even less money is then spent purchasing the
excess commodities that are available. To alleviate this problem the State has taken on the role of
consumer of last resort, ensuring the perpetual growth of the economy. Due to the “grow or die”
imperative imposed by the market, economic growth cannot be contained by moral persuasion, it must
continue to expand without any regard for human needs or environmental impact. Thus, capitalism
should be seen for what it is, a malignant cancer. It will continue to grow until it has so
simplified and disrupted the biosphere such that life itself will not be possible without complete
technocratic control of all natural processes.
9

Additionally under capitalism, people get rewarded according to their profitability, and economic
decisions are put into the individual hands of those who control land, money, machinery, and
technical knowledge. Each actor must do what it takes to keep their sales going or else face
bankruptcy or unemployment. Due to the market imperative to sell, every aspect of life is eventually
assigned a price tag. Not only is this system undemocratic, it is also trivializing and
dehumanizing. Community relationships are reduced to business relationships, and the whole
orientation of society is thus fixated on competition, egotism, and conspicuous consumption.
Following the Second World War capitalism facilitated isolated individualism through creating
automobile dependence, the spread of atomized suburban plots, shopping malls, big box stores, and
the mindless entertainment provided by television and electronic gadgets. Everyday life was made
banal providing corporations with bored people cut off from the nourishment that comes from
developed social bonds. Still further, corporations have subjected us all to the incessant
propaganda of advertising since birth, manipulating us all into viewing worthless junk, which is
designed to break or go obsolete, as necessary for one's own self worth.
10

Capitalism also has a destructive effect on the urban environment. Before the rise of industrial
capitalism, cities consisted of definable, humanly scaled communities. These definable limits have
been erased by urbanization, creating megacities that devastate the landscape and the quality of
human relationships. The stark realities of sprawl, traffic congestion, compartmentalization, noise,
chemical pollution, and a lack of public space are all everyday situations that people are
needlessly subjected to. The city itself is controlled and managed like a business corporation by
elected officials, where maximizing taxes and services is the “bottom line.” People are anonymous in
their environments, often living without a perceivable connection to events outside of their homes
because they do not have direct involvement in them. What information we do receive through the
“news” is propagated by the media to instill a mindset of fear against one another, to misinform on
the problems of society, and to encourage consumption and sell a packaged way of life. Severe issues
such as drug abuse and alcoholism, violence, mental illness, low-self esteem, and stress all rise as
the megalopolis continues to expand to the detriment of life.
11

The State

States have taken various forms over time, all of which cannot be covered and discussed within this
pamphlet. Here, we shall talk about the nation-State, which emerged out of Western civilization from
a long and complex process. A discussion of this modern State demands a clarification of its
ambiguous relationship with politics. The conventional use of the word “politics,” which equals
corruption in many peoples’ minds, is actually an inaccurate use of terms. Politics first originated
in ancient Greece, wherein Greek citizens created and participated in a collective process to decide
how to manage their own communities. What we commonly call politics today should instead be called
Statecraft. Statecraft is the practice of exercising power over citizens. This power is held by
professional politicians and bureaucrats and is backed by a monopoly of violence through the
institutions of the military, secret service, police, prison industrial complex, and the like.

The State is an organized system of social coercion based on the belief that we are all incompetent
beings who cannot be allowed to participate in the decision making of society. Living under this
system, people’s unique and diverse identities are reduced to “taxpayer,” “voter,” and
“constituent.” The citizen is made a passive recipient of services, rather than an active and
knowledgeable participant in the social and political affairs of life. Decisions made on significant
issues such as education, health care, housing, and more are kept out of our control and put into
the hands of an impersonal web of bureaucrats and legislators, who are removed from our everyday
lives.

Although the system enables people to vote for their representatives, we don't have to look far to
see that election campaigns are funded by wealthy elites, that elections only partially or
superficially address important issues, and that politicians consistently abandon campaign promises.
Politicians are professionals whose careers depend on obtaining power. Regardless of the intentions
of the politician, he or she soon learns that for their career to remain and prosper they must serve
economic interests, rather than the people who they are supposed to represent.

Representative governments and the bureaucracies that sustain them are fundamentally opposed to
popular democratic power. Whatever power the State gains is at the expense of popular power, and any
power that people gain is done at the expense of the State. It is thus futile to turn to the State
with major appeals for change, for these appeals would only be subverted by the State in an attempt
to strengthen it's own power. To be sure, there are reforms that are necessary and valuable. But if
we only work for the completion of these minor reforms, then the root causes of social and
environmental problems will persist, and worse, grow and intensify.

No policy is democratically legitimate unless it has been proposed, discussed, and decided upon by
people in a face-to-face assembly. Representatives cannot handle social decision making better than
“amateurs”, everyday people who reflect a range of perspectives, and possess detailed knowledge of
the experiences of daily life. As long as we live under the State’s power, we cannot expect to have
full control over our lives, to fulfill all of our needs, and to be free from oppression
altogether.
12

Freedom in History

The concept of freedom did not emerge in history as a fully articulated and finalized ideal.
Instead, freedom developed and expanded over time by popular grassroots movements and through
influential ideas that sought to counter the experience of domination. Thus, for the history of
freedom to be fully appreciated, one must acknowledge the contributions that have been made with
regard to their social contexts, even while some of those advances may be grossly lacking from our
current perspective.
*

Freedom first appears in recorded history as the term 'amargi'. Amargi was the desired state sought
after by Sumerian peasants during a peasant uprising. To them, freedom meant a longing for a return
to a utopian past in the days before communal solidarity was disrupted and oppressed by the
emergence of hierarchy.
13

As mentioned previously in discussing the State, the Greeks literally invented politics in an
attempt to curb the brutal power of the aristocracy. Although Greek citizenship was blatantly
exclusive from today's perspective, the idea was established that people were competent to
administer their lives themselves without the mediation of an external authority. Greek political
life did not merely retain a localist perspective, but instead expanded outward by forming a union
of cities, or confederation, that lacked an overarching State structure. Centuries later, Medieval
cities, or communes as they were called, were also free of State control and were often organized as
a local democracy or republic. These communes were joined as a confederation over large regions of
Europe.
14

After the Medieval period, the revolution in America was founded on local town meeting democracy and
coordinated throughout the colonies by an elaborate committee system. The town meetings, which began
in New England, spread over the course of the revolution as far south as South Carolina. These
democratic bodies formed what could have been a decentralized direction for the newly independent
colonies.
15

It was during this time that the Enlightenment had its greatest impact. Although it was subverted by
the crass instrumentalism of capitalism, its significance as a contribution to freedom should not be
overlooked. With the Enlightenment came a dynamic perspective on reason that focused on unearthing
the potentiality of a being or concept, rather than the linear logic of deduction. People were
believed to be capable of relying on their rational faculties, as opposed to dependence on faith,
superstition, or obedience. Additionally, there was a belief in popular governance and the
possibility of material well-being for all.
16

The influence of the Enlightenment reached all the way to the base of French society at the close of
the 18th century. Within only a matter of four years Paris was transformed from an absolute monarchy
to a direct democracy. This direct democracy consisted of neighborhood assemblies attended by
working class residents, known as the sans-culottes. The more far-reaching sans-culottes called for
all of France to eliminate the State and organize as a confederation of communes. This advocacy came
literally within moments of realization before it was subverted by liberal reactionaries.
17

The French Revolution's ideals of political equality led to an explosion of ideas regarding economic
equality. Socialism and anarchism both emerged in the revolution's aftermath. Anti-authoritarian
socialists sought a materially sufficient world free from the dehumanizing effects of capitalism.
Anarchists stressed the ability of individuals to form rational and ethical decisions free from
State coercion. Utopian theorists sought a pleasurable society that harmonized an aesthetic urban
area with the natural world. And finally, Internationalists called for workers throughout the world,
regardless of race, ethnicity, or nationality, to organize together and free themselves from
capitalist domination.
18

During the 1848 French Revolution the red flag was raised over Paris, and a social democratic
republic was proclaimed. This revolution marked the first workers insurrection in history. Parisian
workers sought an artisanal form of socialism, and yet, their efforts were thwarted by liberal
reactionaries. A generation later, during the Paris Commune of 1871, State authorities were
compelled to flee the city and leave it in the direct control of its citizens. Despite being
short-lived, the Paris Commune is significant because it too sought to restructure all of France
into a confederation of democratic cities free from State control.
19

Before being subverted by Bolshevik control, the Russian Revolution was marked by a grassroots
democratic movement in both the urban and rural areas of the country. Initially, soviets were
democratic neighborhood bodies, composed of workers and soldiers, which addressed a variety of civic
issues. In the countryside, villages took control of their own affairs and began re-distributing
land according to need. The soviets and peasant communes were desired by many as the political
structure of Russia. After Lenin came to power, insurrections by both Ukrainian populists and
Kronstadt sailors sought to eliminate Bolshevik control and re-establish the democratic soviets and
village communes.
20

In many ways, the Spanish Revolution was the most far reaching revolution in history. At the time,
the majority of Spanish industrial workers were members of the anarchist influenced union, the CNT.
The CNT was syndicalist, meaning it sought democratic worker control of industry. The revolution
itself was initiated in response to an uprising led by fascist military generals during 1936. In
Barcelona, the workers defeated the military and took control of the city themselves. Workers
throughout the entire city expropriated their workplaces and began to run and manage them
collectively. In the Spanish countryside, peasants took control of their villages and began
organizing their farms to be worked as democratic collectives. In many villages, money was abolished
altogether and people were provided for according to their needs. Worker and peasant assemblies were
networked by an extensive committee system which essentially replaced the authority of the State.
The Spanish revolutionaries explicitly sought a morally transformed society in which all contributed
as they could and all were provided for according to need.
21

Following World War Two, the power of the State and capitalism expanded in ways which in turn led to
new contributions to freedom. The counter culture, civil rights, anti-war, feminist, ecology,
student, gay, and neighborhood movements offered a challenge to hierarchical society as such. The
black and women's liberation movements showed clearly that people were discriminated against and
socially isolated for non-economic reasons, and that efforts to achieve freedom should not be
limited to political and economic equality, but must go further and eliminate hierarchy altogether.
In recent years the anti-globalization movement has continued the struggle against centralized
power, and the Occupy movement has sought to address grievances through popular assemblies organized
at the municipal level.
22

This section largely follows contributions to freedom made in Western society. Unequivocally, some
forms of domination, such as racism and imperialism, were spread globally by European countries.
Without absolving these realities, it would be one-sided to discredit the emancipatory ideals that
also developed there. As with other societies, European domination also extended inward against the
vast majority of people who populated Europe. Freedom is an ideal that developed in dialectical
tension with domination itself. Concepts such as socialism, anarchism, and utopia emerged in Europe
as a result of people's attempts to counter absolutism and class exploitation. Additionally,
non-Western revolutions were largely limited to being nationalistic due to their historical need to
expel the Western imperialists. In contrast, many of the Western revolutions had the historical
privilege of going beyond nationalism and promoting universal ideals to the whole world – ideals
such as democracy and socialism.
23

Social Freedom

History has shown that there is ever growing potential in what we can achieve for our societies. It
is important to know how people in the past have expanded the ideal of freedom in order to see the
possibilities that lie in our present and future. Communalism offers a concept of freedom that is
twofold in nature, involving both a positive and a negative form. These are freedom from
exploitation, and the freedom to realize one's own individual potential as a human being. Thus, to
fully realize freedom, an ecological society must be opposed to all forms of exploitation, whether
it be economic, ethnic, sexual, or any other form. An ecological society should seek to minimize
anyone's suffering, while enabling everyone to fulfill their creative potentials.
24

Overcoming the social and ecological crisis must involve the renewal of individuality. Contemporary
individualism, defined as freedom from social obligations, is an alienating conception of selfhood
that encourages competition and egotism.
25
By contrast, Communalism maintains that a well rounded,
developed self only results from empowered participation in one's communities and through the bonds
of cooperative relationships with the members of those communities. Direct participation provides a
person with insight into and a degree of control over the social events that he or she is a part of.
It also reveals our mutual dependence on each other and gives fulfillment to our social need for
solidarity. Moreover, participation provides each individual a public space to share his or her own
skills and experiences with the larger group. A renewed appreciation for diversity would emerge as
societies recognize that acknowledging and celebrating differences leads to stronger unity.
26
Ultimately, society should uphold a type of selfhood that is as Murray Bookchin described, “guided
by a rational, humane, and high-minded notion of the social and communal good”.
27

A society of empowered individuals must also involve the freedom from an exploitative market, and
the freedom to participate in an economy based on ethics. Communalism maintains that there are no
technical impediments to achieving a “post-scarcity” society. Today, capitalism creates an
artificial scarcity of goods, while the mass media is used to generate artificial needs in our
minds. A post-scarcity society is made possible by rejecting the notion of limitless needs, and
replacing it with a commitment to enhance the welfare of all individuals and our environments.
Material affluence would be exchanged for a life in which individual needs are consciously arrived
at with the purpose in mind of enabling our creative and cultural potentialities. Modern technology,
for instance, holds the potential of producing a sufficiency of goods for all people, while reducing
the hardships of human labor. This is not to suggest an ascetic life of denial. To the contrary, by
eliminating market induced consumerism, advanced technology could be used to provide the material
base for the fulfillment of each individual's aesthetic, intellectual, and sensuous desires within
an ethical social context.
28

For a fuller appreciation of social freedom, let us distinguish between the concepts of justice and
freedom. Justice seeks equality by treating all people as uniform, and rewards them in proportion to
their contribution. Individual people, however, are different for many reasons, among which include
poor health, disability, or age. Justice inadvertently creates inequality because it fails to
compensate for individual need, rather than contribution. By contrast, freedom should be based on an
ethics of concern for personal difficulties or suffering and strive to eliminate these hardships.
Accordingly, genuine freedom creates equality through the recognition of and compensation for
inequalities.
29

Communalism emphasizes the subjective experience of the individual, and their capacity for
reflective action. The commitment to the realization of the individual's full potential through an
ethics of care and cooperation provides the basis for the abolition of domination as such. Our
liberation must encompass the remaking of our own psyches such that a pyramidal ranking of
differences is replaced with an ecological outlook whereby individual differences are encouraged and
celebrated as contributions to the enrichment and beautification of the whole experience of life.
30

This social context would yield a society free from oppression. White supremacism would cease, and
people of color and whites would have the same shared social power. Although ethnic and cultural
diversity should remain, the concept of separate “races” would come to an end. Traditional gender
roles would no longer be the standard for men and women, and they would be free to choose their
behavior and roles according to their own interests and strengths. People would be empowered to
choose their gender identity and sexual relationships freely without moral retribution or political
interference. Classism and economic status would no longer be possible when everyone is provided for
according to need. Able-challenged people would also not be discriminated against, and would be
provided for such that they are able to fulfill their passions to the extent possible. The
subjective experience of children would be valued, and paternalistic domination would be replaced by
parent's facilitating their development toward adulthood. And last but not least, the emphasis
placed on people's subjective experience would result in a culture actively opposed to rape and
physical, psychological, and sexual abuse.

Direct Democracy

Communalism calls upon people to take control over their lives through roles of active citizenship.
Here, citizenship does not mean writing or petitioning your legislators. Instead, it is the
empowerment of all people to participate directly in deciding social legislation. Selfhood and the
democratic community mutually reinforce each other through the development of civic virtues and a
commitment to the welfare all people. Thus, a person should participate in social decision making
with consideration of how a decision would not only affect one's self, but how it will affect others
as well.
31

For these reasons, Communalists advocate the creation of directly democratic legislative assemblies
at the neighborhood or town level as the sole policy making bodies of the land. These assemblies
should meet regularly and follow defined rules of order that give each person the right to speak
while keeping meetings within an acceptable length of time. In addition, all citizens would be
permitted to contribute to the meeting's agenda. A person's own confidence in participation should
follow naturally from the education and experience provided by participation itself. Furthermore, it
should be recognized that it would be impossible for an entire society to make decisions with
unanimous consent. Some form of majority voting is not only inevitable, but also desirable. Public
dissent with the decisions made by a majority should be welcomed and encouraged because dissenting
opinions serve as the generative force of fresh ideas. Those who hold positions not supported by the
majority would retain the freedom to persistently advocate their stance through reasoned discourse.
The details and rules of each assembly should be democratically founded on a carefully constructed
set of bylaws.
32

Arguing for local direct democracy does not mean that it would be necessary or required for all
citizens to attend assembly meetings. Even attendance rates are not significant. It can be assumed
that during ordinary times attendance could be quite low. While during more controversial times it
can be expected that people will turn out in much larger numbers. What is important here is that all
people have the freedom to participate whenever they so choose.
33

An important point to keep in mind when considering the feasibility of direct democracy is the
separation of policy making from the administration of those policies. All policies should only be
made directly by the citizens' assemblies. The administration of these policies would be handled by
delegates who have no policy making power of their own. Instead, they would be issued mandates which
describe the range of actions and powers granted to the delegates. All delegates would be subject to
immediate recall by the assemblies if they fail to follow the mandates given to them. Administrative
delegates could be elected or even chosen at random in a conscious effort to prevent the
professionalization or centralization of social administration. This separation of policy making
from its administration is a critical point. If at any time the delegates chosen to administer the
community's policies begin to decide social policies for themselves, then power will have left the
hands of the citizens, thus laying the groundwork for a new State.
34

To gain a better understanding of assembly policies let us consider two different examples. For one,
a policy can be made that restricts people from engaging in certain actions. For example, a policy
could be approved that prohibits the logging of trees in certain forested areas. Alternatively, a
policy can be one that enables people to take certain actions. An example of this could be when an
assembly decides to build a bridge across a waterway. A team of engineers would likely be tasked
with drafting various bridge proposals for the assembly to choose from. It would be the engineers'
responsibility to explain their various proposals in clear language for all to understand, but the
decision of which plan to implement would be decided by the assembly.
35

Doubtless, there will be times when policies are infringed upon. These encounters should occur at a
tremendously lesser rate than in our current society because today's policies exist to maintain a
dehumanizing power structure and stark inequalities in wealth. Nonetheless, when it is suspected
that a policy has been broken, the inquiry should be pursued by a popular jury of people known to
the suspect. In the times that it is decided that a person is a physical danger to their community,
then that person should be restrained at a comfortable, life-enhancing therapeutic center that
provides counseling, care, and productive activities. There should be no prisons or jails at all.
The focus of this restraint should be the healthy reintegration of the individual back into society.

Another important component of direct democracy is that it doesn't preclude governance over larger
areas of society. In fact, this system can be expanded to regional levels, even globally, without
any need for a centralized State. To do this, cities and towns would form an administrative body of
mandated delegates in much the same way that administration is handled at the local level. This form
of inter-municipal cooperation is called a confederation. Confederation policies would still be made
directly by the citizenry, only now through referenda. The results of a referendum would be decided
in favor of the majority of the total votes cast. Each city would be bound to follow the decisions
of the citizens as a whole, thus giving citizens regional power to prevent a municipality from
causing environmental damage or human rights abuses. Through a confederation, all citizens are given
collective power to administer society without creating an intermediate institution with power over
them.
36

The resolving of conflicts between municipalities should focus on non-violent tactics. When needed,
facilitation or arbitration should be provided from outside the areas that are in conflict. These
conflicts would hopefully be rare given the abolition of power and wealth inequalities throughout
society. If a situation arises that a municipality needs to defend itself physically, this defense
should be organized around democratic militias controlled by the popular assemblies, as opposed to a
hierarchical, professional army.

Liberatory Technology

Although technology has been used to exploit and simplify the planet on a frightening scale, it is
not technology itself that is at fault here. Rather, it is the fact that technologies are designed
and employed within the context of a hierarchical and rapacious society. In an ecological society,
technology could be oriented to play a liberatory role for humans that also enhances the integrity
and biodiversity of non-human nature. From this orientation, technology would be used for the
purpose of eliminating toil and drudgery, and labor-saving techniques would be applied so as to
minimize the amount of necessary work for everyone.
37

Although automation will receive a great deal of focus, it must be stressed that we are not
advocating a completely automated, roboticized environment where people are not involved in
production. What is important is that these technologies can be decentralized and placed under the
direct control of a community. The fact that robotics and automation can be used to provide for
everyone's needs gives people the choice of what extent to utilize such techniques. An ecological
society would free people's time for the purpose of character formation through civic involvement,
and for applying one's efforts towards the artistic and vocational activities of their own choosing.
In fact, work itself would become a playful activity enabling each individual to realize their own
creative potential at a leisurely pace of their own choosing. People would be endowed with the
opportunity to find an intricate balance between mental and physical labor, indoor and outdoor work,
working communally and alone, between crafts and agriculture, and between the city and the
countryside. To explore these possibilities further, here are brief explanations of the
technological possibilities regarding the areas of manufacturing, mining, agriculture, and energy.
38

Manufacturing

Due to the development of 3D computer design and computer-controlled machines, virtually every
area of manufacturing can be fully automated and scaled for local production. All of the
individual processes of metal working and woodworking, including precision cutting, shaping, and
joining can be handled by a relatively small set of machines and housed in a local neighborhood
facility. Automated processes can also be implemented for the local fabrication of any shape of
glass, plastics, or clothing that can be designed by anyone. Along with this capability,
practically any finished product can be assembled automatically based on an item's assembly
instruction computer file. For instance, any person in the world could download the design and
assembly files for a baby stroller. All of the parts – possibly a combination of metal, plastic,
wood, and fabric – would be manufactured directly and then fully assembled, all without
requiring human labor.
39

Documentation for productive machinery should be made freely available via the Internet,
enabling the rapid transfer of technical and mechanical knowledge throughout the world.
Documentation could include a materials list, computer design files, instructional videos, and
collaboration software such as a revision system, a discussion forum, and a wiki. Additionally,
assistance through video conferencing could be provided for the purpose of making it easier to
answer questions and demonstrate techniques.

The maintenance of industrial infrastructure could be automated as well. Machine parts, fluids,
and performance rates can be monitored using sensors that provide data to a computer control
system. To the extent necessary, a machine could be disassembled robotically, and each part
could be run through a series of diagnostic tests. When machine diagnostics determine fault, a
replacement part could be manufactured and installed on the fly without the need for human
involvement.

Mining

Despite the use of computer-controlled machinery toward liberatory ends, the elimination of new
metal production should be considered a real possibility. Vast amounts of metals are thrown into
landfills every year. According to one report, the director of energy at a major aluminum
corporation has estimated that there is more aluminum in landfills then can be produced by
mining ores. He goes further to suggest that this may be true for copper and gold as well.
40
In addition, an ecological society would necessarily consist of a thoroughly remade built
environment, one in which urban gigantism and the reign of the private automobile is brought to
an end. In a built environment reconstructed according to ecological precepts, along with an
economy oriented toward production for life rather than profit, we could very well find
ourselves amidst an abundance of metals, and with no or a greatly attenuated need for new metal
production.

Nevertheless, if some degree of new metal extraction is needed, it can be done in a
non-destructive manner while alleviating toil. As of 2010, an iron ore has been in operation
that is fully automated from the mine to port. The whole operation is remotely administered by
computer operators.
41
This approach to automation can be coupled with a biological method of
metal extraction. This process, called biomining, employs microorganisms to leach the metals out
of the ore. The development of biomining techniques is important because it uses only a small
amount of energy, requires little infrastructure to set up, works with low as well as high grade
ores, and has minimum labor requirements. Still more, it brings nature into an otherwise
inorganic process, and thus assists in further clarifying the necessity for a cooperative
relationship with the natural world.
42

The production of aluminum impacts the environment negatively in many ways. The standard process
creates a array of toxic byproducts while consuming extremely large amounts of electricity. If
production of aluminum is to continue, then an alternative method must be established. Recent
studies have concluded that aluminum can be biomined, and thus drastically reducing energy
consumption and CO2 emissions while also eliminating other undesirable byproducts.
43
The fact
that low grade ores can be processed through biomining opens the door for producing aluminum
directly from clay, which is aluminum silicate. Through this approach, aluminum production
could be radically decentralized such that people throughout the world could manufacture their
own aluminum using a local and abundant resource.
44

Agriculture

Advanced technology can be applied to agriculture in an organic manner that enhances the
surrounding biodiversity as well as the pleasures of farming. A typical example of beneficial
farm machinery is that of the tractor. Through the use of a wide variety of attachments, a
tractor is used for lifting and transporting heavy objects, digging, tilling, mowing, seeding,
auger drilling, and mixing compost along with many other useful tasks. By the same token,
robotic and automated farm equipment can be utilized by small-scale farms that grow nutritious,
delicious food, while also improving the soil.

By coupling agricultural automation with the principles of permaculture and an advanced software
system, farms can be created that are free from toil, composed of complex polycultures, and are
as much aesthetic playgrounds as they are sites of food production. Permaculture is an
information intensive form of ecological agriculture that seeks to enhance biodiversity by
carefully designing its components such that each farm element serves multiple functions and is
placed in a location that is mutually beneficial to other nearby elements. Additionally, it aims
to enhance soil by facilitating natural plant succession. An example of permaculture design is
the “three sisters” companion planting technique where beans, corn, and squash are grown close
together. Corn provides a structure for the bean vines to grow upon, the beans fix nitrogen into
the soil, and the squash provides a ground cover so as to retain moisture and prevent weeds from
growing. Permaculture sites are designed to utilize plants that attract beneficial insects and
birds that serve as a method of biological pest control. And finally, a strong emphasis is
placed on growing perennials and the replacement of tilling with mulching so as to minimize
human labor and soil disturbance.
45

Computer-aided permaculture (CAP) software can assist in developing ecological farm plans that
model land-use zoning, intensive polycultures, and production estimates while acting as a guide
for coordinating the full use of local materials to avoid waste. Farmers, either families or
collectives, would need to provide the software with the necessary information in order for the
model to be generated. This information could account for climate, typography, and local
hydrology among others. The software would access a publicly modified database that stores
information on plant communities (companions), their appropriate spacing, germination and
harvest dates, water and sun requirements, and many other attributes. Through this information,
the CAP software would generate a model detailing the array of plants to be grown, their best
locations according to soil, sun, and drainage, the expected volume of food, medicinals, and
animal products as well as how much of what plants can be turned into biofuel, bioplastics, or
mulch. With the modeled plan in hand, the farmers can go through a democratic process on
modifying and settling on an acceptable plan. The finalized plan would later be modified, year
after year, according to circumstances and participant choice. Furthermore, these plans could be
linked up with surrounding farms in the region in order to harmonize their efforts so as to
realize a regional form of agriculture that is both decentralized and ecological.

The complexities of intensive companion planting at the scale of a farm, as opposed to a
backyard garden, lends itself to the assistance of small, autonomous field robots. Field robots
could carry out many useful tasks like transplanting, weeding, spreading mulch, and harvesting.
Automated monitoring systems could be put in place that control a drip irrigation system or the
release of organic fertilizers. Even a robotic system could be implemented for corralling
chickens or ducks into a specified area to eat insects. Automated greenhouses could also be used
for starting seeds and tending to seedlings. Separately, automated greenhouses could implement
an advanced aquaponics system that yields high volumes of fish, vegetables, and biofuel. These
technologies, together with automated forms of more conventional farm machinery, could provide
an abundance of food with a minimal of necessary labor while at the same time improving the soil
and increasing local biodiversity.
46

Energy

The energy for an ecological society must not rely on fossil fuels, but should instead consist
of a variety of renewable sources that are produced locally. Methods for producing renewable
energy include not only the familiar solar panels, wind mills, and biofuels, but also
concentrated solar energy systems, hydrogen fuel cells, and pyrolysis. Taken together, these
techniques can supply a local community with all of their fuel and electrical needs.
47

For example, pyrolysis is a process that converts biomass into varying amounts of charcoal,
syngas, and bio-oil. Syngas can be converted directly to electricity using a highly efficient
hydrogen fuel cell which produces very low emissions. The carbon dioxide that is given off in
the process are those that were originally sequestered by the biomass used in the pyrolysis
process, making the whole production cycle carbon neutral.

Given the ecological benefits it provides, the charcoal made during pyrolysis is commonly
referred to as biochar. When biochar is added to soil it enhances nutrient retention and thereby
increases soil fertility. Due to biochar being highly resistant to decomposition, all of the
carbon contained within the biochar is effectively kept out of the atmosphere for thousands of
years. Because the biomass that is turned into biochar consumes atmospheric CO2 during its
growth, this method of energy production is part of a carbon negative process that yields a
beneficial soil additive to boot. Thus, biochar has great potential to reduce the high levels of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
48

There are more economic areas that are not covered here in this pamphlet which a liberatory
approach to technology could be applied. What the above analysis shows is that the necessary
technologies and ecological energy sources essential for establishing a decentralized,
ecological society exists now and is within our grasp.

Ethical Economy

An ecological economy should be placed under the direct control of the citizenry, just like with
social policies. In effect, the means of economic production – land and equipment – would be placed
under the domain of the assembly, and regional economic integration would be achieved through the
confederation. The range of economic decisions addressed by assemblies would include, among others,
how much of various goods should be produced for the year, and which technologies are deemed
acceptable for use. The specifics of how goods are produced and how services are rendered should be
decided upon and administered by the people who spend their time working at or maintaining a
workplace, such as a farm, workshop, or a hospital. The assemblies decide what needs to be done, and
the workplaces decide how it gets done.
49

An ethical economy would be one that is cooperatively planned rather than having goods allocated
within a competitive market. Democratic economic planning can be greatly assisted by an advanced
software system. Every item that is manufactured – not including unique hand crafted items – could
be included in the system. This entry would include documentation that details the item's material
requirements and build instructions. In addition, it would include an assessment of how many
embodied labor hours are involved in its production, the current capacity for producing it locally
at a desired quantity, its energy requirements, and qualitative assessments such as the social and
ecological impact of its manufacture. During annual economic planning meetings people would propose
and decide what items are needed by the municipality as a collective unit, such as a public
building. In addition, individuals or households would need to submit their anticipated consumption
plan for the year. Initially this would be done from scratch, but afterwards can be modified year
after year. This plan would quantify categories of items needed – such as how many pairs of shoes or
how many pounds of fruit – not the specifics of the items themselves. The software would aggregate
everyone's information in order to assess what can be produced locally, what goods need to come from
elsewhere in the confederation, how much labor will be needed, and to compile reports itemizing
qualitative, user-submitted notes. In an economy that produces for need rather than profit and in a
society oriented toward creativity and cooperation rather than consumerism, it is likely that total
consumption requests will fall below productive capacity. Nonetheless, if requests are found to be
excessive then overages would be highlighted, and people could be asked to modify their plans
accordingly. This process would be done iteratively until a workable collective plan is voted for.
50

The computer modeled economic plan should be capable of estimating how much labor in each productive
area is needed. Those who are capable of working would be expected to assist in achieving the goals
of the democratic assemblies. People should be allowed to volunteer their time toward the needed
task of their choice. Volunteering time to fulfill needed work tasks should occur naturally because
those who will do the work will have participated (or at least had the freedom to do so) in their
assembly's decision making. Still further, they will be part of a cooperative community whose
members they know on a face to face basis. Situations where a sufficient number of volunteers do not
come forth could be handled in a non-coercive manner. Initially, the assembly could reassess whether
the goal is still desired in light of how the situation develops. If the assembly concludes
affirmatively, then people could simply be asked again to step up and help out. If this approach
fails then the endeavor could be made more enticing by planning an accompanying feast or
celebration. Otherwise the plan would ultimately be canceled until sufficient support is available.

Although the liberatory use of technology enables the radical decentralization of manufacturing,
municipalities will always remain interdependent with other municipalities for different goods –
both raw materials and various agricultural or manufactured items. These communities need not engage
in a bourgeois concept of monetary trade. Instead, a community that receives needed items, items
which would be produced with a minimum of physical labor, could express their gratitude and achieve
reciprocity by responding with hand crafted gifts or by sending an occasional delegation to perform
music or to provide a feast.

In keeping with the Communalist concept of social freedom, the distribution of goods in an
ecological society should be made not according to one's productive contribution, but according to
their needs. Within the capacity of the local assembly or confederation, each person's material
requests should be fulfilled according to their own determination of needs. Hoarding and conspicuous
consumption would cease to exist, because anyone could have the same goods as anyone else. More
significantly, people would be free from the psychological manipulation of advertisers and would
live immersed in a culture oriented toward communal cooperation, solidarity, and creative
expression. Each person would be the embodiment of a rounded, developed self – in control of his or
her own life, knowledgeable of the technologies that provide for his or her needs, acutely aware of
the importance of biodiversity, and a known member of a caring community. Because this economy would
be controlled democratically, based on a voluntary labor system, and would provide for people
according to need it should be considered deeply ethical.
51

Urban Decentralization

Realizing the potential of a non-hierarchical society organized around a directly democratic,
confederal politics, an ethical economy, and the use of liberatory technology, enables the radical
transformation of the built environment along ecological lines. This transformation should
necessarily bring the dimensions of the built environment down to a scale that is fully
comprehensible and accessible to individual people. It is at this scale that people can come to know
one another on a face to face basis as members of a community. It is also at this scale that natural
balance can be achieved without overwhelming the local base of resources. It follows then that our
sprawling urban and suburban conglomerations should be dismantled, and that people would relocate in
a more evenly distributed manner. The same machines that are today being used to enlarge the sea of
urban concrete can instead be used to tear it up, dismantle the massive commercial buildings, and
salvage large quantities of useful materials.
52

The actual size limits of future cities would be left up to the popular assemblies themselves. It is
beneficial, however, to speculate on such matters in order to grasp the possibilities that are at
hand. The population limit of 30,000 that Ebenezer Howard placed on his Garden City concept seems
like an appropriate upper limit.
53
Anything beyond this limit would likely take a toll on local
resources while becoming incomprehensible as a totality to each individual resident. While a city of
this size would still prevent all of the citizens from knowing each other on a personal level, the
city would be divided into numerous neighborhoods that would approximate the communal inclusiveness
of a small town. These neighborhoods should themselves be no larger than 1,000 inhabitants with each
containing their own democratic assembly.
54
Neighborhood assemblies would join together to form a
municipal confederation that governs the city as a whole. To avoid conglomeration, cities of this
size should be spread out across the land. Each of these cities could mark the centerpiece of a
decentralized municipal arrangement known as a township. In a township a relatively large city is
surrounded by a number of smaller cities, towns, and villages all of which is enclosed by
agricultural and forest land. This arrangement allows for a harmonious balance to be struck between
town and country.
55
The municipalities within a township would themselves form a township
confederation, while all of the townships of a region could join together to form a regional
confederation.

All citizens would be able to actively participate in neighborhood, municipal, township, and
regional planning through the shared use of a GIS based city planning software system that
incorporates 3D architectural and engineering modeling.
56
Citizens could propose and debate various
plans for distributing productive facilities throughout the township or regional confederation, for
solving transportation logistics, and for the aesthetic landscape of the built environment itself.
Again, although these are decisions to be left for future assemblies, it is helpful to assess the
principles that an ecological form of city planning should incorporate. For instance, in order to
approximate the human scale, even the largest cities should be designed to allow people to easily
access the countryside by bicycling or walking. The countryside itself could be merged seamlessly
into the city by incorporating a web of interlocking fingers of farmland that reach all the way to
the city's center. City neighborhoods should be easily identified from one another and have distinct
boundaries that acknowledge their limits. Neighborhood boundaries give form to the city while
providing each neighborhood with its own distinct character. Towns, villages, and cities should
arrange their centers of public activity into a relatively small number of key spots so as to create
vital gathering areas that facilitate social interactions. These activity centers could be home to
various mixtures of workshops, recreational and sporting grounds, kitchen and dining halls, and
public buildings. The area should be a magnet for creativity where art, music, and theater become an
abiding part of public life. All public spaces should be built in a manner that is welcoming to
people of all ages while also placing emphasis on being inclusive to people of all identities.
Additionally, public spaces should be landscaped to provide both aesthetic beauty and food to enjoy
throughout the seasons. Arrangements could be made that enable domesticated animals to have a
continual presence, and residents should have easy access to bodies of water and forested areas. A
mixture of household arrangements could be provided that accommodate couples, extended families,
collectives, or those who wish to live alone.
57
A variety of transportation outlets could be
implemented within a municipality such as a public streetcar system, electric assisted bicycles,
light electric vehicles of various sorts, and a shared supply of trucks for heavy loads. Great
emphasis should be placed on minimizing traffic congestion as much as possible. This minimization
should not be too difficult to achieve if municipalities are well designed and limited in size.
Agricultural areas could be equipped with trucks as needed, and they could be connected to a rail
line for shipping and receiving goods. Finally, township municipalities and regional areas could be
linked together by an energy efficient monorail system that could operate without a driver if
desired.

From Here to There

The move from our current society to the free society detailed above must necessarily involve
convincing a majority of the population to support these ideals. To do this, we must build a
movement that is organized around the reconstructive vision that has been put forth. The specifics
of the developments of the movement will no doubt be determined by the people involved and in light
of the circumstances they face. Nonetheless, it is valuable to outline a program of action in order
to provide an overall vision of how the existing system can be overcome. This program is proposed
with the hope to catalyze people to act around the values of social freedom. In addition, this
platform is to provide people with an initial basis of ideas from which they can develop their own
ideas and creative approaches. While ideals – such as full opposition to hierarchy – will be
asserted as necessary, the program detailed below is not intended to be a rigid approach to social
change. Instead, it is a speculative exercise in exploring how the remaking of society might be
achieved.

This movement should seek to address all of the particular issues of oppression that people face.
Yet, these issues should not be addressed in isolation from one another. It is important to be aware
of the intersectionality of oppressions and privileges. This awareness provides acute knowledge of
the complexity of people's varied experiences, the myriad of oppressions that need to be overcome,
and the privileges that should be leveraged against privilege itself. To fully address the realities
that we face, one must integrate single-issue work into a broader campaign that treats all of the
issues at hand. Thus, we must seek a unified movement that addresses a diversity of issues and acts
in the general interest of all of humanity. This movement should strive to be as diverse as possible
with regard to social and economic status so as to represent a wide spectrum of experiences and
perspectives.
58

An initial approach to promoting Communalist ideas is to distribute a leaflet or pamphlet with the
intent to explain these ideas as clearly as possible. As supporters are found, it would be wise to
form small study groups to explore these ideas together in more detail. As the group begins to gain
confidence in their ability to articulate themselves, public promotion of Communalism could be
expanded into a regularly occurring newsletter that seeks to promote solutions to local issues from
a Communalist perspective, while tying them to the long term vision of an ecological society. As
with leafleting, distributing a newsletter puts fellow Communalists in the position of having to
address questions and concerns, and makes for a reciprocal educational exercise for both the
Communalist and the conversation partner. Another way of educating people is by holding a lecture
series or by giving talks to groups focused on social justice issues. Still another important
approach is to run for local office based on a platform that makes clear the group's unwavering
intent to change the structure of municipal government into that of a direct democracy. As an
exercise in popular education, a Communalist campaign should be run on a face to face basis. It is
important to stress that electoral attempts should never be engaged for the purpose of easily
gaining a large following. Losing by a large margin is desirable if people are not yet educated on
the ideas being promoted. If a Communalist campaign ever surrenders its far reaching goals to gain
this large following, it will inevitably become ineffective, demoralized, and corrupted. Just as
well, in order to remain true to its anti-Statist vision, campaigns for offices beyond the
municipality should be wholly avoided. It is desired that educated individuals, not a mass of
propagandized voters, comes to accept and join the nascent movement.
59

As support begins to grow, focus could be turned toward the neighborhoods where the support is
coming from. This focus could be done initially by starting a neighborhood community technology
project. Community technology projects are similar to community gardens in that they bring people
together in a cooperative effort.
60
These projects could demonstrate the liberatory possibilities of
technology using relatively low cost and technically accessible examples. Some open sourced projects
to start with could include building a a RepRap (3D printer), a Shapeoko (computer controlled mill),
a Lasersaur (computer controlled laser cutter), or a Liberator (compressed earth block press).
61
These provide excellent examples in showing people that decentralized manufacturing is an immediate
possibility. There are many other open source hardware projects on the Internet that could be of
great benefit. Concurrently, a permaculture demonstration site could be established to teach key
concepts such as companion planting and holistic site design.

Simultaneous with the community technology project, a neighborhood assessment could be done to gain
knowledge of both the problems and the possibilities that confront the neighborhood. An important
first task is to learn the social composition of the neighborhood. This task could involve learning
which homes are owner-occupied and rentals, who the long-term residents are, who people turn to as
leaders, the level of unemployment, and so on. From these residents seek to learn the neighborhood's
history and past political battles. Another task could be to engage in a door to door survey in
order to determine what resources are available within the neighborhood. Learn what issues are
important to people, what skills they have, what their hobbies are, and what tools or facilities
they have that may be useful at some point. Also, learn who owns the empty buildings and
neighborhood lots with the intent of finding an opportunity to put them to communal use. At the same
time, residents could be given literature explaining the group's intent to empower people directly
so that they are no longer controlled by centralized sources of power. Another great exercise could
be to assess what the neighborhood's potential is for food and energy production, as well as its
potential capacity for manufacturing its own goods.
62
To the extent possible, the whole neighborhood
assessment process should be documented and made freely available on the Internet for others to
replicate and build upon these efforts. With this wealth of information in hand, Communalists could
work with concerned residents to develop a minimum program. A minimum program is a set of demands
focused on addressing immediate issues. In order to avoid becoming reformist, it should be shown how
the minimum program ties into the long term vision, or maximum program, of the Communalist
project.
63

Following these initial efforts, some residents of the neighborhood will become generally familiar
with Communalist ideas, and will be enticed by its call for people to directly govern their own
lives. When this level of consciousness is reached, Communalists should begin calling on
neighborhood residents to attend assembly meetings as an act of self-empowerment. An important point
to note is that these meetings should be open to the people who actually live in the neighborhood,
not the landlords or business owners who profitize off the area and live outside of it. Rather than
an occasional gathering used to defend themselves against the undesirable plans coming out of city
hall, these popular assemblies should occur according to a regular schedule with impromptu meetings
called as needed. Regardless of how nascent their actual power to substantially effect their
situation, by participating in an on-going series of assembly meetings the people of the
neighborhood will have taken an immensely important step forward in overcoming the oppressive
institutions that control them – they will begin to govern themselves. Although at this point these
assemblies will not have real legal power, they can nonetheless act as a moral force in the
community, and can pressure the city government to address their minimum demands. Because the
neighborhood will have begun to govern itself to some extent, the assembly will in effect be a
source of power, a dual power, alongside that of the city government. When the popular assembly
comes into existence, Communalists should focus their efforts on educating the assembly participants
on the assembly's importance as a dual power structure. This effort would help citizens see
themselves as an active part of a process that can lead to the ideal of social freedom. Any power
that the popular assembly is able to exercise for themselves will necessarily come at the expense of
the city government. This development should not be isolated to a single neighborhood, but instead
should encompass numerous neighborhoods throughout a nation, and even internationally, so that they
collectively act as a dual power structure to the State itself.
64

While the popular assembly is still new and its power small, it can begin to take measures to
address some of the issues that the people face. In addition to applying pressure to the city
government, various community projects can be initiated to begin building a cooperative culture
while attempting to overcome the anonymous, alienating, and fragmentary way of life furnished by
urban gigantism and the commodification of life. Examples of such projects include creating a
child-care collective, a free school, or even a method of adjudicating disputes that avoid involving
the police. Additionally, a community kitchen and dining hall could be established in order to free
individuals and families from the labors of nightly meal preparation and from the unhealthy options
provided by fast food culture. Here, people would come together to converse freely with a variety of
neighbors in a social setting wholly different than the isolated tables positioned throughout a
restaurant.
65
These quality of life improvements will induce developers to turn a speculative eye on
the neighborhood. It is important to preemptively defend against gentrification before it is too
late. Tools for this fight include creating a tenants union, influencing the local zoning board, and
establishing community land trusts to take properties off the real-estate market.
66

It would be wise for the popular assembly to be very deliberate in how it acquires funding for its
community technology and social projects. If funding comes from a source that is not aligned with
the movement's long term goals then that source will use its power as a funder to co-opt the
movement toward its own reformist agenda. An alternative means of acquiring funding can be realized
by demanding that popular assemblies be given direct control over deciding how municipal taxes are
spent. This form of municipal funding falls under the name of “participatory budgeting.” While
participatory budgeting has been implemented in various reformists ways, gaining directly democratic
control over municipal taxes for the purpose of funding popular assemblies as a dual power would
mark an important step in expanding the political and economic power of those assemblies.
67

Popular assemblies could use the funds acquired through participatory budgeting to establish
neighborhood owned microfactories that are administered by workers hired from within their
respective neighborhoods and paid a living wage. Microfactories are small factories that are capable
of producing a variety of goods by employing, to the extent possible, small-scale automated
machinery and digital manufacturing techniques. Microfactories would enable neighborhoods to
establish a degree of economic self-reliance. Popular assemblies should cooperate with other
assemblies in their city and region in order to decide which type of goods each microfactory should
focus on, so as make best use of their economic power without unnecessarily duplicating their
efforts. Residents should be encouraged to buy neighborhood manufactured goods rather than from
corporate retail outlets. If successful, microfactories would be a secondary source of revenue for
the popular assembly, further strengthening their economic power.
68

It is doubtful that any city government would grant neighborhood assemblies any degree of control
over municipal budgets that could be used at the expense of the existing power structure. In order
to realize these goals, popular assemblies must gain political power within the city government.
Neighborhood assemblies should run candidates for local office on a Communalist platform that
connects the neighborhoods' minimum program with the maximum program of an ecological society. As
with the educational campaigns already mentioned, these campaigns should only seek to gain the
backing of those who support the long term vision of fully transforming the institutions of our
society. Otherwise the whole movement will become reformist, and defeat its own potential as a
revolutionary force. Candidates should be considered spokespeople for the assemblies themselves, and
remain fully accountable to the assemblies. Once elected, it will be their responsibility to do
everything in their power to assist in strengthening the power of the popular assemblies.
Participatory budgeting should be implemented to the furthest extent possible, highly progressive
taxes should be put in place, any regulations or red tape that interferes with the popular
assemblies' goals should be removed, regulations for corporations should be increased, and control
of city property within the neighborhoods should be transferred to the assemblies themselves.
69

The newly empowered popular assemblies should then be capable of realizing many of their minimum
demands. This scenario would greatly expand the Communalist movement's role as a dual power
alongside that of the existing State apparatus. This situation necessarily creates a tension with
the State that cannot last due to the fact that the strength of the assemblies' movement is realized
at the expense of the State's ability to control them. This tension should not only be welcomed, but
cultivated. The assemblies should make every attempt to expand their power or else the State will
succeed in usurping them. To make this attempt, assemblies should work to achieve their maximum
demands by entering into a phase of action meant to serve as a transition from our existing
hierarchical society to that of a fully emancipated, ecological society. One of the most important
steps to take is for city charters to be changed for the purpose of giving popular assemblies the
power to decide municipal policy for themselves without the need for consent of the city council or
any other representative authority. This power could then be expanded further by expropriating
corporate assets and placing them under the control of the city's neighborhood assemblies'
confederation. Patents and copyrights pertaining to those assets should be eliminated, and all
knowledge should be made freely available over the Internet so that people throughout the world can
contribute to ushering in a new eco-technological revolution with liberatory potentials that reach
far beyond those that exist today. As well, banks should be expropriated and all debts relieved in
full. Empty buildings and the property of landlords should be confiscated so that housing can be
provided for all, and to eliminate the wasteful and exploitative burden of rent.
70

By implementing the provocative actions of the transitional program, society will have entered into
a revolutionary situation. It should be noted that the power elite will not accept this development
passively, and at some point will go on the violent offensive. Hopefully by that point large numbers
of men and women will defect from the military and join the cause of social freedom. Nonetheless,
for the Communalist movement to survive and for the State and capitalist system to be defeated, the
State must be divested of its monopoly of violence. This action requires the creation of a network
of defensive civic militias that remain under the full control of the popular assemblies.
71

To complete the revolution, the money system must be abolished, and the workings of the new directly
democratic society should be clearly defined by writing bylaws at the assembly and various
confederal levels. With these structures in place all of the efforts needed to achieve urban
decentralization and the liberatory use of technology can be coordinated between the numerous
assemblies through their confederal delegates.

Conclusion

It is intended that the revolutionary strategy presented here avoids the pitfalls of pragmatism with
its willingness to compromise any ideal in exchange for minor reforms, and of purism with its
inability to engage the present situation in a manner that is capable of addressing pressing issues.
The Communalist alternative seeks a harmonization of means and ends by developing a minimum program
that is linked to an emancipatory vision via a transitional program. Communalism aims to reach
people under their current circumstances, to touch them with the realization of what could be, to
bring to their consciousness the desire for a completely transformed society, and to empower them to
act in cooperation with those living around them. We are all trapped into participating with the
current system in one way or another. But we can refuse to give to it our loyalty. With the
potentialities of an ecological society in mind, we can keep in the forefront of our consciousness
how irrational and dehumanizing bourgeois society is.

If you are trapped behind a desk at an office or school, unemployed, working at a meaningless job,
stressed or in debt, alone or depressed, sickened by the destruction of the environment, disgusted
by the commercialization of life, outraged by injustice, have loved ones locked in a prison, or
angered by police violence, government surveillance, and the militarization of society, then you are
urged to turn toward the liberatory alternatives in Communalism. A different kind of society is
truly possible for us to achieve together. Let us begin to take the steps necessary for collectively
freeing ourselves from the irrational system that enslaves us.

Due to being a comprehensive ideology, aspects of Communalism are studied under specific terms
which relate to the ideas being covered. The socio-historical analysis of the development of
hierarchy and freedom is discussed under the name of social ecology. The ethics and philosophy of
Communalism is titled dialectical naturalism. Finally, the political approach of Communalism is
often referred to as libertarian municipalism. Additionally, the term Communalism itself was adopted
rather late in the development of these ideas. Previously, this collection of ideas was rooted under
the ideology of anarchism. Some people who identify with these ideas may still consider themselves
social anarchist rather than Communalist. Nonetheless, for the sake of presentational simplicity and
ideological clarity we have chosen to use the term Communalism here in this text.

References

The ideas discussed herein are based, by and large, on the work of Murray Bookchin. For an
introductory text on Communalism see:

Bookchin referred to this economy as a 'moral economy'. We, however, think it would more
appropriately referred to as an 'ethical economy' given the distinctions that Bookchin himself
made between ethics and morality. For Bookchin, morality is standards not based on rational
analysis
by a community. In contrast, ethics involves rational inquiry and debate over the matters of
right and wrong.

These ideas are borrowed in part from Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel who developed a
proposed system of democratic economic planning that they call 'participatory economics.'
Albert, Michael, Parecon: Life After Capitalism (London and New York: Verson 2003) – p.118-147

This figure comes from Christopher Alexander who asserted that population sizes larger than
1500 would prevent people from effectively governing themselves. He further stated that 500
inhabitants would be the ideal size.
Alexander, Christopher, A Pattern Language (New York: Oxford University Press) – p.4, 81

For a historical overview of the New England township model see:
Mumford, Lewis, The City in History (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc, 1961) – p.332